Wuxi

After seven consecutive days of work and rushing through ten cities, I stole a half-day of leisure before boarding my flight back to Australia to visit Wuxi’s renowned Jichang Garden. I had long wished to see it in person. One reason is its brilliant and grand design: the garden rests against Huishan Mountain while borrowing the scenery of Xishan Mountain, from which the Song Dynasty Longguang Pagoda can be seen atop the hill. The distances, proportions, mountain contours, and pagoda silhouette—together with their reflections in the garden’s lake—are perfectly balanced, like a meticulously composed Song landscape painting: serene and restrained, yet brimming with life. Of course, this is only the beginning. The true marvel lies in the artificial hills along the lakeshore, which seem to extend as natural continuations of the surrounding ranges, their heads greeting Xishan and their tails pointing toward Huishan. This effect—though man-made, as if born of nature—is a rare achievement in later Chinese gardens, particularly those of the late Ming and Qing, which grew ever more ornate and affected.